OhForAGreavsie

The fact that it's lunchtime on a work day afternoon is a bit of an excuse.

I heard a report which ranked him as POTM in his first Club World Cup performance. Did anyone see the game?

Earnings in the region of £50m if we reach the quarter finals gives the tournament an importance which the club can't, and won't, ignore.

Makes perfect sense.

But, over the years, they've fought to keep selected players like Reus, Bellingham, Dembele, Lewandowski, Gotze, and Hummels, for example. The are not fighting to keep Gittens. They are just haggling for the best price they can get.

If these valuations are correctly ranked, and accurately reflect consistent real game contributions, then six from the top, and six places above Sancho, isn't bad. I'm not encouraged by BVB's stance mind you. They aren't really fighting to keep him, and I would expect them to if he is of the calibre to make a really good impact in the Premier League.

Is anything known about why he turned down the Saudi move? It can't simply be the money since he won't get anywhere near the same offer elsewhere. Might it just be for his negotiating integrity? Has he maybe said I won't take any less than x amount, and then felt forced to walk away when he wasn't offered what he had asked for? Interesting to see what next in this multi-season drama.

Is it significant that Noni is starting for England while Gittens does not make the squad, or does his age fully explain this?

I'm looking forward to my first real viewing of Santos. I saw nothing whatsoever which impressed me during the youth international tournament where he received rave reviews, and I have not watched him at Strasbourg. This will be my chance to catch up so I hope he gets significant minutes.

As for the tournament itself, I find it hard to look past PSG for the eventual winners.

Wow! That genuinely made me laugh out loud. Hands up any American who would be willing to risk life without trump?

America is sleep walking to its own destruction. That's already a disastrous situation but have people noticed how the right-wing lunatics are trying to reverse Britain's fading addiction to the religion drug? How they talk about restoring our judeo Christian values? It's intentional. They are deploying religion for its original purpose; a thought control mechanism.

We seem to have a favourable draw. It gives us a chance to progress to the last sixteen and, if we avoid Bayern at that stage, we might even be favourites to make the last eight. That would be a good, and profitable, outcome.

Time was the wealthy used their money to employ politicians to do their bidding. Nowadays they cut out the middle man, take office, and attempt to act directly. On a more positive note, if Dopey Donnie follows through on his threat to withdraw government contracts from Musk companies it will be a good thing. A very good thing. How a single man can have been allowed to gain control over so much vital US infrastructure, both military and civil, is mindboggling. The politicians who allowed this have created a real life Blofeld; a maverick who can threaten to switch off parts of that infrastructure which the USA, and the world come to that, can't do without. In case of emergency we might think Dopey could order a forced takeover of certain Musk operations but who knows what fail safes Musk might have built into his systems. Who needs Ian Fleming. 😞

Second, Musk is correct that Trump is in at least some Epstein files; Gawker reported back in 2015 that he was included in the “little black book” of people who had traveled on his infamous private jet. Trump himself has been photographed and filmed partying with Epstein several times, and told New York in 2002: “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy … He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.” One Florida businessman told The New York Times that back in the ’90s, he said to Trump, “Look, Donald, I know Jeff really well, I can’t have him going after younger girls,” but “Trump didn’t care about that.” That said, Musk may not be innocent here either. Epstein reportedly helped his brother Kimbal Musk find a girlfriend, and Epstein claimed to the Times in 2018 that he had helped Musk find a new chairman for Tesla, though Musk denied it. Musk was also photographed with Epstein’s notorious fixer Ghislaine Maxwell in 2014, though again Musk claims he was photobombed. But fundamentally, this is an object lesson in how government works when demagogues and oligarchs have all the power. Both Trump and Musk are aspiring autocrats, one with a propaganda death grip on a critical mass of disgruntled low-information voters, the other the richest man on Earth who also owns an important communications platform. Unlike, say, a union leader or political boss who represents and is therefore accountable to some organized constituency, they both have wide latitude to indulge their deeply erratic whims. Outside of a tiny minority of unhinged ideologues, nobody voting for Trump wanted to obliterate America’s scientific dominance, or to destroy America’s international reputation by killing millions of Africans, or to start a nonsensical trade war with every country simultaneously. There is no large organic constituency for any of this. At the same time, both Trump and Musk are mutually dependent, and can therefore inflict serious damage on each other. Musk may be right that Trump would not have won without his money, but without Trump on the ballot money alone did not let Musk buy the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Musk is also right that NASA and the Pentagon have become totally reliant on SpaceX for their basic operations, but by the same token SpaceX depends on government contracts. Its Starlink service is reportedly somewhat profitable, but its future prospects of massive growth depend on the (dubious) prospect of government-funded missions to the moon and Mars. If Musk really tries to hold NASA and the Pentagon hostage, well, that has not worked out well for oligarchs in similar circumstances—but that won’t look great for Trump either. That is government by ultra-billionaire and reality TV charlatan. Terrible, idiotic policies nobody asked for might only be stopped because two world-historical megalomaniacs could not sit down and hash out their differences. Pass the popcorn please.

You are more positive about him than I am. The next season is a big one for him in terms of establishing his status in the game but I remain a non believer.

At least this suggests there's a good option available for Trevoh if he still hasn't convinced Chelsea's decision makers. Still a top five league, Champions League, and there are a lot of worse places to live than Southern Italy.

No, I don't believe that he did. He remains what he always was, i.e. a player who flatters to deceive.

Impress with your advanced English. Instead of half-a-quid Jackson, say ten-bob Jackson. And if you really want to put someone down go with two-bob, e.g. two-bob OhForAGreavsie, or he's two-bob.

Quite possibly net.

Didn't want him at half the price. Certainly don't want him now.

Agreed. Last season we were able to use squad teams in most cup games. Next season it will be a massive advantage if we are able to use a squad team in some Premier League matches. That's going to require a significant upgrade in the quality of the squad team.

I don't know for sure but I would be surprised if we were contractually obliged to pay him during his ban.

Does this mean they have ended their reported interest in Gibbs-white?

We should be able to play him in the Club World Cup, which would count as this season. We would then still have the option to loan him out again, whether that be back to Genk, elsewhere, or even both Genk and one other club over the course of next season.